Bears, Patriots Have Gambled -- And Scored -- With The Draft

January 20, 1986|By Brian Schmitz of The Sentinel Staff

The Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots seemingly make for strange Super Bowl bedfellows. Yet they finally have reached the top in much the same way -- through phenomenal success in the college draft.

After seasons of mediocrity, the Bears and the Pats have rebuilt their teams rather quickly during the '80s. The behind-the-scenes work of wily, aggressive front-office talent scouts has come to fruition.

The Tampa Bay Bucs ought to take note of the Bears' and Pats' successes.

Twenty-five of the 45 players on each team are products of the past five drafts.

Before this infusion of talent, Chicago and New England each posted regular-season records of 34-39 from 1980 to 1984. The development of these players reached a climax this season, with the clubs setting team records for victories. Chicago is 17-1; New England 14-5.

Chicago and New England each will start nine former first-round draft choices Sunday, making Super Bowl XX a showcase for No. 1s.

By comparison, the Philadelphia Eagles started just three No. 1 picks this season and have only 15 survivors from their past five drafts.

The Bears are the NFL's third-youngest team (average age 25.1 years) and the Pats are the sixth-youngest (26.5), according to the league office. These are not franchises George ''Over The Hill Gang'' Allen would feel comfortable around.

Chicago has 10 rookies. New England has three but has 16 players with three or less years of experience.

What this means is that the Bears and the Pats figure to be contenders for some time.

Building or rebuilding a team essentially is the responsibility of men like Bill Tobin and Dick Steinberg, player personnel directors for the Bears and the Patriots, respectively.

Tobin and Steinberg work all year evaluating their clubs and judging the football flesh sprinting off America's campuses. Still, says Steinberg, ''It's all a risk. We make mistakes in the draft. I guess both teams have been exceptionally fortunate.''

The Bears' fortunes are especially impressive, considering they have the smallest personnel department in the NFL. Tobin has three scouts; Steinberg has eight.

''It doesn't matter how many people you have as long as you can get the job done,'' Tobin said. ''We value each other's opinions. We don't need to look at a kid 10 or 12 times.

''Besides, first opinion is the best opinion. We get 80 percent of our opinion watching film. Another 10 percent comes watching the kid play and practice, and the other 10 from his coaches.

''But so much of scouting is feel and gut feeling.''

In 1983, Tobin was one of the few scouts who had a ''feel'' for a skinny, 220-pound defensive end from Tennessee State named Richard Dent.

''I saw a great pass-rusher -- I said that the night of the draft,'' Tobin said. ''Teams stayed away because he was about 224 pounds and broke his forearm his senior year. Played the last three games in a cast and didn't play the last one because it got infected.''

Tobin, however, found out that Dent's weight problem was partially caused by poor dental hygiene. ''I had Richard ranked as a second-round pick, but I figured we could get him later. We didn't have a fifth, sixth or seventh-round pick that year,'' he said. ''I was going to jump off a building if somebody had taken him. But we got him.''

Dent, his weight now at 255 pounds, has led the NFL in sacks two years running.

Both Tobin and Steinberg are proud that their organizations -- from the coaching staff to ownership -- has supported them. ''They haven't backed off a challenge,'' Tobin said. ''We have no restrictions. Nobody said Wilber Marshall was too expensive or back off of Jim McMahon because of his agent.'' Drafting philosophies and styles differ between the Bears and the Pats, but no one can argue with the results. The Patriots like their players to fit the NFL mold; the Bears like players who fit the Bear mold.

''We like everybody to fit the mold of the big and fast guy,'' Steinberg said.

''For the most part, our team is that way. We probably have one undersized player Clayton Weishuhn, a 6-1, 218-pound linebacker, who is now injured, and that's about it. You keep taking too many so called 'overachievers' and get mediocrity.''

The Bears, on the other hand, prefer to draft the old-fashioned way. They don't rely on computers, because they can't measure a player's heart or character.

And character is important to Tobin when he goes hunting for players. ''We are not an aggressive team by accident,'' Tobin said. ''We go after those kind of players. That's what we liked about Mike Singletary.

''Everybody said he was too short 5-10 1/2, didn't fit the linebacker mold. But you'd see films of him, and he was knocking people on their butts. He had that kind of nasty attitude we like. He sure didn't play like a 5-10 linebacker.

''Plus,'' Tobin said, ''everybody we talked to said he was a great leader. That's important to us.''